Story, November 1977: The ABBA-industry is working in full force

An article from Dutch gossip magazine Story. Apparently, Frida had two more children without even knowing about it...
Anni-Frid, Björn, Benny and Agnetha, together forming the world-famous ABBA-quartet, look upon themselves as some kind of international business enterprise. They’re not exactly bothered by the difficult times.

There’s hardly any time to catch their breath. They are composing songs, making records, releasing albums, publishing books, touring in every corner of the world and starring in a feature film. Obviously, a film about themselves. Because don’t be mistaken: for the time being that cool, neatly washed and impeccably dressed foursome doesn’t even think about letting that stream of money flowing incessantly into their bank accounts dry up. But in the middle of all these activities – and you can take it from us that it isn’t easy to maintain such a multinational – they’re still able to find some time to take care of their personal business.
Björn and Agnetha haven taken residence on an island on the Swedish coast in a new house that still needs to be completely furnished. Agnetha is very busy with that, although Björn would like to see her taking things a little easier. At the end of this year she’s expecting her second child.
Meanwhile, Benny is carefully studying the videotapes that were made of their tour, because there’s always room for improvement. His girlfriend Anni-Frid, who likes to see her four children every now and then as well, is taking dancing lessons and recently she met her father for the first time. A German pop magazine had discovered that pastry baker Alfred Haase, now living in Karlsruhe, had seduced a Norwegian girl as a soldier during the war, that later became Anni-Frid’s mother.

“You shouldn’t believe all this gossip claiming that we will quit in the near future,” Björn reassures us. “And if you want to know more about us, you should buy the book in which we are revealing our success story ourselves.”
Get the message? The book, the title of which will most probably be ‘The Phenomenon ABBA’, is intended to be published at one blow all over the world. And obviously that will bring in some cash as well.
ABBA’s shrewd manager Stig Anderson has estimated that his foursome’s records are bringing in about twenty-five million Dutch guilders every year. “And that’s excluding the sales in the US,” he adds smartly.
For the time being, the world doesn’t seem to get enough of ABBA. A situation that’s very satisfying for the Swedish tax collectors office as well.